The overall objective is to enhance the ability to address overarching challenges in the area of Mechanobiology of the Brain. Highly interdisciplinary in nature, the 2015 Summer Institute will offer faculty expertise from biology, engineering, materials science, medical science, and imaging through a combination of lectures and hands-on lab experiences.

Specific objectives include:

Educate researchers and graduate students about the fundamentals of neuroscience and cellular mechanics

Provide an intense learning experience and facilitate interaction among engineers, biologists, and clinicians

Train a new generation of researchers at the interaction of neuroscience and engineering

A GEM4 Summer School week-long event recently finished at Imperial College, London. The event was held 10-14 September, 2012, and had a focus on Mechanobiology. The programme was fully subscribed, with 60 delegates present for the week. Keynote speakers came from the UK, the USA and Singapore.

The Summer School of GEM4 held at Imperial College in London (10-14 September) has been a huge success. It has attracted 65-85 participants, students from all over the world, with a similar interest: how is the UK and specifically Imperial College London involved in Mechanobiology. We welcomed 8 Asian, 35 European, 9 American and 20 English students, who listened to lecturers and key-note speakers presenting their world-leading work on Mechanobiology.

This success is the work of a group of people who met several times over the last year to discuss all aspects of this summer school. Thanks to them this summer school was such a high success. So, special thanks to: Professor Max Lab, Professor Terry Tetley, Professor Ralph Knoll, Professor Spencer Sherwin, Professor Peter Kohl, and Professor Ross Ethier. In addition, I would like to express a special thanks to all lecturers, and key-note lecturers who spent their time and energy to deliver superb presentations for this highly interested group of students. The key-note speakers together with the Imperial College lecturers made sure that each presentation was rounded up with well-posed, critical questions from the students which led to lively discussions.

Last but not least, I would express my gratitude to Ross Ethier, the former head of department of Bioengineering of Imperial College, who supported this initiative by especially opening up the Bioengineering Department, and my group who helped out enormously during the whole week and above all Allan Nyunt and Laura McKay without whom this week would not has been possible.